Exodus

An outline

The second book of
the Bible, its name
is from the Greek meaning ' departure'. A
look at its authenticity is to be found in the section dealing with the Pentateuch , whole.
This book has to do with the redemption of the children of Israel
from Egypt. The book divides into two sections: the
historical account of the Exodus and the giving of the Law at Sinai.

1. Chapter Outline

Section

Ref.

Notes

Narrative

1-2

The bondage of the Israelites and
early life of Moses

3-4

The call of Moses

5-12

The
confrontation with Pharaoh

God sends Moses
to demand Israel's release

Ref.

Moses

Pharoah's
response

Result /Plague

5-6

Let my people go

I
know not God

Bondage made worse

7

Shows the sign of the rod

magicians
copy the signs

(I) Nile turned to blood

8:1-15

Let my people go

hardens
his heart

(II) Frogs

8:16-19

hardens
his heart

(III) Lice

8:20-24

Let my people go

(IV) Flies

8:25-26

Compromise
offer 1: sacrifice in the land

Moses insists on a 3-day
journey.

8:27-32

Compromise
offer 2: sacrifice, but not too far away

The flies removed but
Pharoah further hardens his heart

9:1-7

Let my people go

(V) Murrian of cattle

9:8-12

hardens
his heart

(VI) Boils

9:13-35

hardens
his heart

(VII) Hail

10:1-11

How long do you refuse?

Compromise
offer 3:
go, but only the men, leave the families behind!

Moses driven from Pharoah

10:12-20

hardens
his heart

(VIII) Locusts

10:21-23

hardens
his heart

(IX)
Darkness

10:24-29

Compromise
offer 4:
go, but leave the flocks behind!

Moses refuses, nad is driven from Pharoah
with orders not to see his face again

11-12

(X) Passover

The final plague results in the death of the death of all the
firstborn, not covered by the lamb's blood, in Egypt; this finally
forces Pharoah's hand.

2. Its Typology

Its factual historical
account
of the Exodus and its surrounding events give much typical
teaching of the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. We only have space
to outline some of the teachings here. The following NT
scriptures gives us three examples:

A. Christ our Passover

Purge out
therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are
unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the
leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of
sincerity and truth.

I Cor. 5: 7 - 8

Christ our passover! The passover was killed, its blood applied
to the households and the lamb eaten inside. Jesus the Lamb was
slain His blood applied
and we are to eat of Him. Jn.
6:53-57

B. Baptised into Christ

Moreover,
brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our
fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were
all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; And did all
eat the same spiritual meat; And did all drink the same spiritual
drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and
that Rock was Christ.

I Cor. 10: 1 - 4

The crossing of the Red sea typifies our
baptism into Christ by the Holy Spirit, ie. new birth. I Cor. 12:13; Eph. 4:5

C. The Tabernacle

Then verily the
first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly
sanctuary.
For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the
candlestick,
and the table, and the shewbread; which is called the sanctuary.
And
after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of
all;
Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid
round
about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s
rod
that budded, and the tables of the covenant; And over it the cherubims
of
glory shadowing the mercy seat; of which we cannot now speak
particularly.
Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into
the
first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. But into the second
went
the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he
offered
for himself, and for the errors of the people: The Holy Ghost this signifying,
that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while
as
the first tabernacle was yet standing: Which was a
figure for
the time then present,..

Heb. 9:1 onwards.

Our final example is that of the Tabernacle;
the
above passage highlights from Scripture itself some of its
typical
meaning. It is tempting to give more detail here, but that would be out
of
place in an outline. It is hoped that such a very brief mention here
will
encourage the Bible student to pursue the themes for themselves.

3. The Exodus and
Egyptian history

Many people do not accept the
truth of the historical narrative of Exodus, because of the (
supposing) lack of extra biblical evidence of the exodus in
Egyptian
records, which one would expect considering the type of civilisation
Egypt
was. There are three points to be made here:

1. This argument has been used against the
Bible before, only to collapse when archaeology has turned
up supporting evidence. For example, for many years
it was thought that Ninevah, capital of Assyria, was only
mentioned in scripture and, because evidence was not to be found
of its existence, many saw this as proof of
the Bible not being true. However, in the 19th
Century
the remains of the ancient city were discovered, thus confounding the
sceptics. The fact is when it comes to looking into the
past we only have partial evidence, at best, or no evidence
at all; and absence of evidence is not evidence of absence! An
excellent book looking at Biblical archaeology is The
Stones Cry Out by Dr. Randall Price (1997)
Harvest House Publishers, where these matters are looked
at in detail by a christian expert in the field.

2. The main attack on the exodus
comes from considering the chronology of ancient Egypt: that is
by comparing the Biblical chronology with the accepted
Egyptian one, no evidence can be found for the events
of Exodus when looking at the Egyptian records for the time period that
the Bible demands. However the question is: why is it that the Bible is
always assumed wrong? The accepted Egyptian chronology
is not as infallible as many scholars would have us
believe. In fact there has been much debate in recent times about the
Egyptian chronology with many revisionists putting forth their
own schemes, and the matter is not settled by a long way.
The link below gives a view from a Christian
perspective on the current debate to show how fluid the topic is.

3. Our trust in the Bible does not depend on
extra - Biblical evidence. After all many of the people in the
scientific field are unbelievers, with their own agendas! It is
good when there is supporting evidence, but our faith does not
rely on that. If we accept the inspiration of scripture then we must
accept the Bible as a whole
and therefore the story of the Exodus as it is written: it
all stands or falls together.